"Right for Fight"
A proposition for Visegrad Grant
- In each Visegrad country, developing a 2 weeks-long project composed of two parts:
- The "School of Desire": 9 classes for women
- "Right for Fight": a community art project, a social choreography co-created with 20 non-professional local women + 2 public performances / country.
- Category: Social Development / Promotion of tolerant and inclusive mindset in society, protection of minorities
- Partners: 4 theaters from Visegrád countries
keywords
social development, body, desire, acceptance, tolerance, empathy, self-confidence, women empowerment, women's rights, lgbt rights
concept
“Right for Fight” is a socially and politically engaged sustainable community art project on the intersection of creation, non-formal education and women empowerment.
The project is composed of two parts:
The project is composed of two parts:
- "School of Desire": a pop-up, experimental and ephemeral art school and fight club for all women, regardless of age, professional or educational background. Flexible commitment to increase the number of participants: attendees don't have to follow the whole program, but they can actually register independently for each class.
- "Right for Fight": social choreography & sustainable community building, created with 20 civil non-professional woman from the local environment.
timing
14 days-long project in each Visegrad country:
- Day 1-9: free thematic classes open for all women ("School of Desire") + co-creation of a social choreography ("Right for Fight")
- Day 10-12: Rehearsals ("Right for Fight")
- Day 13-14: Presentation of the co-created performance ("Right for Fight")
the "School of Desire"
The female body will be addressed and interpreted through the lens of history, sociology, local myths and culture. Through discussions, creations in different medium and presentation, participating women will learn to use reflection of their own embodied experiences.
Attendees can register independently to each class.
Attendees can register independently to each class.
- DAY 1: Body & Consumer culture - Part 1. "Beauty industry, cosmetic surgery"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 2: Body & Consumer culture - Part 2. "Fashion"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 3: Body & Health - Part 1. "Disordered bodies, disordered eating"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 4: Body & Health - Part 2. "Periods, Body smells, Hairs"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 5: Body & Social control - Part 1: "Policing-Regulating-Dominating"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 6: Body & Social control - Part 2: "Oppression, Exploitation, Violence"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 7: Body & Sexuality - Part 1: "Desire"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 8: Body & Sexuality - Part 2: "Love"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
- DAY 9: Body & Sexuality - Part 3: "Intimacy"
- 14-17h: Class
- 19-21h: Creation, rehearsal of "Right for Fight"
right for fight performance
"Right for Fight" is about the right to fight, about legitimacy, about faith. It is about trust, distrust, community, exclusion, oppression and liberation.
On the stage we see 20 amateur and semi-amateur women: different ages: students and retired ; different bodies: a sagging breast here, a tight bottom there, kilos and protruding ribs ; different origins, different colors, some of them are graduated, some of them are unemployed. 20 women, all different, 20 life stories, 20 opinions, 20 struggles, 20 fights. With each other, for each other, against each other, next to each other.
Personal thoughts:
"Well, first of all, I would like to put together a very diverse team. It's important for me to have all different bodies, ages, walks of life, backgrounds, social classes... 20 women, 20 life stories with whom we're going to do a performance about rebellion. Rebellion against individual and social expectations. A struggle for freedom, a struggle for liberation and acceptance, to live and exist in our body and soul as we are, without external pressures and willingness to be validated by others. It will be physical, for sure, but it doesn't require any dance skills. It needs honesty and I think anger. Some strength, some energy to release. I want everyone to come to the dance studio and leave in the changing room their professional life, their degrees, all the crap that society can use to categorize you as this or that. I like to build a space in the studio - it's going to take time - where everyone is who they are. Acceptance, openness, empathy. And working from that together."
#1 DUET
When does love turn into harassment? What patterns of behaviors are used to gain or maintain power and control over a partner? What are those distorted beliefs about care, support and love that justify and legitimate the presence of violence in a relationship and where do they come from? How can we not see what everybody sees?
Wbusive relationships can be hard to recognise.
After a worldwide rise in domestic violence due to virus-related lockdowns together with the Hungarian local context where the parliament has rejected the ratification of the Istanbul treaty to prevent and combat violence against women we understand that noone protects us, and claim our right for fight.
#2 DUET
From love to hate, blindness to opened eyes, desire to boredom, harmony to conflict, we want to stay but leave, end but continue, take care but hurt, open but close. Full of contradiction, oppositional emotions, ambivalent reactions, passionate and irrational choices, this duet conceives love as a universal combat sport without protective equipment, in which vulnerable fighters constantly rewrite rules, negotiate power, fight with each other, for each other, against each other, next to each other…
With a deliberately heteronormative romanticized aesthetic, “Right for Fight” Duet #2 attempts to deconstruct gender stereotypes and asymmetries between the sexes, go against the hyper-sexualization of lesbians, take love and relationship dynamics as genderless and universal. “Right for Fight” Duet #2 claims for queer visibility through making it invisible, neither show it, nor hide it, just make it normal, banal, boring.
#3 DUET
What is queer what queer has became? Is this a catch-all term now? Can queerness be dissociated from politics? Did queer turn mainstream? Is there a queer formalism? In recent years in the contemporary art world, queer has more and more lost its political meaning, became a nearly empty fashionable topic, a kind of umbrella word. Having often the same postmodern theoretical references, “contemporary queer performance art” is often characterized by the use of stereotypes in grotesque and caricatural ways through cross-dressing, gender-based exaggerated stereotypical movements, clichéd body postures and gestures, together with outfits of superficial signs and appearances, such as sparkly high heels, nakedness or the fashionable(!) Berliner hipster techno style. Without having a critical approach and a radical clear political statement, queerness in these pieces is often reduced into the realm of “topic”, and remains at a level of aesthetic, instead of deconstructing hierarchies, they definitely maintain asymmetries between the sexes, reinforce gender stereotypes, keep the debate alive but putting it on the side.
In Hungarian:
A „Right for Fight” a küzdelemhez való jogról szól, a legitimitásról, a hitről. Bizalomról, bizalmatlanságról, közösségről, kirekesztésről. Elnyomásról, felszabadulásról.
A színpadon 20 amatőr és félamatőr nőt látunk: különböző életkorok: még tanulók és már nyugdíjasok ; különböző testek: itt egy lógó mell, ott egy feszes fenék, kilók és kilógó bordák ; más és más származás, bőrszín, van, aki diplomás, van, aki munkanélküli, van közöttük tanult és írástudatlan is. 20 nő, mind más és más, 20 élettörténet, 20 vélemény, 20 harc. Egymással, egymásért, egymás ellen, egymás mellett.
Személyes gondolatok:
„Nos először is egy nagyon diverz csapatot szeretnék összecastingolni. Fontos nekem hogy legyen benne mindenfele test, életkor, életút, háttér, társadalmi réteg... 20 nő, 20 életút, akikkel együtt csinálunk egy előadást a lázadásról. Lázadás egyéni és társadalmi elvárásokkal szemben. Harc a szabadságért, küzdelem a felszabadulasért és elfogadásért, hogy testünkben és lelkünkben úgy tudjunk élni és létezni ahogy vagyunk, megfelelési kényszer és külső nyomás nélkül. Fizikális lesz, az biztos, de nem kell hozza tánc tudás. Őszinteség kell hozza és azt hiszem düh. Némi erő, levezetni való energiák. Azt szeretném, hogy mindenki úgy jöjön próbára, hogy az öltözőben hagyja a szakmai életét, diplomáit, minden szart, ami által a társadalom bekaregorizálhat, hogy te ilyen vagy vagy olyan. Egy olyan teret szereték a próba teremben kiépíteni - ez idő lesz -, ahol mindenki az, aki. Elfogadás, nyitottság, empátia. És ebből dolgozni közösen.”
On the stage we see 20 amateur and semi-amateur women: different ages: students and retired ; different bodies: a sagging breast here, a tight bottom there, kilos and protruding ribs ; different origins, different colors, some of them are graduated, some of them are unemployed. 20 women, all different, 20 life stories, 20 opinions, 20 struggles, 20 fights. With each other, for each other, against each other, next to each other.
Personal thoughts:
"Well, first of all, I would like to put together a very diverse team. It's important for me to have all different bodies, ages, walks of life, backgrounds, social classes... 20 women, 20 life stories with whom we're going to do a performance about rebellion. Rebellion against individual and social expectations. A struggle for freedom, a struggle for liberation and acceptance, to live and exist in our body and soul as we are, without external pressures and willingness to be validated by others. It will be physical, for sure, but it doesn't require any dance skills. It needs honesty and I think anger. Some strength, some energy to release. I want everyone to come to the dance studio and leave in the changing room their professional life, their degrees, all the crap that society can use to categorize you as this or that. I like to build a space in the studio - it's going to take time - where everyone is who they are. Acceptance, openness, empathy. And working from that together."
#1 DUET
When does love turn into harassment? What patterns of behaviors are used to gain or maintain power and control over a partner? What are those distorted beliefs about care, support and love that justify and legitimate the presence of violence in a relationship and where do they come from? How can we not see what everybody sees?
Wbusive relationships can be hard to recognise.
After a worldwide rise in domestic violence due to virus-related lockdowns together with the Hungarian local context where the parliament has rejected the ratification of the Istanbul treaty to prevent and combat violence against women we understand that noone protects us, and claim our right for fight.
#2 DUET
From love to hate, blindness to opened eyes, desire to boredom, harmony to conflict, we want to stay but leave, end but continue, take care but hurt, open but close. Full of contradiction, oppositional emotions, ambivalent reactions, passionate and irrational choices, this duet conceives love as a universal combat sport without protective equipment, in which vulnerable fighters constantly rewrite rules, negotiate power, fight with each other, for each other, against each other, next to each other…
With a deliberately heteronormative romanticized aesthetic, “Right for Fight” Duet #2 attempts to deconstruct gender stereotypes and asymmetries between the sexes, go against the hyper-sexualization of lesbians, take love and relationship dynamics as genderless and universal. “Right for Fight” Duet #2 claims for queer visibility through making it invisible, neither show it, nor hide it, just make it normal, banal, boring.
#3 DUET
What is queer what queer has became? Is this a catch-all term now? Can queerness be dissociated from politics? Did queer turn mainstream? Is there a queer formalism? In recent years in the contemporary art world, queer has more and more lost its political meaning, became a nearly empty fashionable topic, a kind of umbrella word. Having often the same postmodern theoretical references, “contemporary queer performance art” is often characterized by the use of stereotypes in grotesque and caricatural ways through cross-dressing, gender-based exaggerated stereotypical movements, clichéd body postures and gestures, together with outfits of superficial signs and appearances, such as sparkly high heels, nakedness or the fashionable(!) Berliner hipster techno style. Without having a critical approach and a radical clear political statement, queerness in these pieces is often reduced into the realm of “topic”, and remains at a level of aesthetic, instead of deconstructing hierarchies, they definitely maintain asymmetries between the sexes, reinforce gender stereotypes, keep the debate alive but putting it on the side.
In Hungarian:
A „Right for Fight” a küzdelemhez való jogról szól, a legitimitásról, a hitről. Bizalomról, bizalmatlanságról, közösségről, kirekesztésről. Elnyomásról, felszabadulásról.
A színpadon 20 amatőr és félamatőr nőt látunk: különböző életkorok: még tanulók és már nyugdíjasok ; különböző testek: itt egy lógó mell, ott egy feszes fenék, kilók és kilógó bordák ; más és más származás, bőrszín, van, aki diplomás, van, aki munkanélküli, van közöttük tanult és írástudatlan is. 20 nő, mind más és más, 20 élettörténet, 20 vélemény, 20 harc. Egymással, egymásért, egymás ellen, egymás mellett.
Személyes gondolatok:
„Nos először is egy nagyon diverz csapatot szeretnék összecastingolni. Fontos nekem hogy legyen benne mindenfele test, életkor, életút, háttér, társadalmi réteg... 20 nő, 20 életút, akikkel együtt csinálunk egy előadást a lázadásról. Lázadás egyéni és társadalmi elvárásokkal szemben. Harc a szabadságért, küzdelem a felszabadulasért és elfogadásért, hogy testünkben és lelkünkben úgy tudjunk élni és létezni ahogy vagyunk, megfelelési kényszer és külső nyomás nélkül. Fizikális lesz, az biztos, de nem kell hozza tánc tudás. Őszinteség kell hozza és azt hiszem düh. Némi erő, levezetni való energiák. Azt szeretném, hogy mindenki úgy jöjön próbára, hogy az öltözőben hagyja a szakmai életét, diplomáit, minden szart, ami által a társadalom bekaregorizálhat, hogy te ilyen vagy vagy olyan. Egy olyan teret szereték a próba teremben kiépíteni - ez idő lesz -, ahol mindenki az, aki. Elfogadás, nyitottság, empátia. És ebből dolgozni közösen.”
participant's learning outcomes
During the 9 classes and the creation process, participants will be encouraged to raise their voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop their capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: achieve structural and sustainable changes.
Participating in the "School of Desire" and the "Right for Fight" performance increase participating women's self-confidence, foster their creativity and critical thinking, give them support, knowledge and tools to resist, defy, protest and take action. The program develops participant's originality and out-of-the-box thinking by offering them a non-hierarchical and judgment-free space where they can express themselves freely: question social norms and expectations, challenge conventions and traditional canons, confront stereotypes, rules and systems in which they are socialized and familiarized with. Participants are also encouraged to liberate themselves from their fears, transgress their boundaries, go beyond their limits and push themselves out of their comfort zone.
1. Theoretical knowledge, Awareness-raising on women's rights
2. Self-reflection & mental health
3. Artistic techniques & skills
Participating in the "School of Desire" and the "Right for Fight" performance increase participating women's self-confidence, foster their creativity and critical thinking, give them support, knowledge and tools to resist, defy, protest and take action. The program develops participant's originality and out-of-the-box thinking by offering them a non-hierarchical and judgment-free space where they can express themselves freely: question social norms and expectations, challenge conventions and traditional canons, confront stereotypes, rules and systems in which they are socialized and familiarized with. Participants are also encouraged to liberate themselves from their fears, transgress their boundaries, go beyond their limits and push themselves out of their comfort zone.
1. Theoretical knowledge, Awareness-raising on women's rights
- Acquire the ability to think and act freely and critically;
- Achieve social change, make things happen;
- Get introduced to some theoretical concepts (female body, standard of beauty, body positivity, body politics, reproductive rights, sexualization, cult of virginity, domestic violence, anti-pornography, queer bodies, women’s health and disabilities...);
2. Self-reflection & mental health
- Develop self-confidence, self-care and self-love;
- Liberate themselves from their fears, transgress their boundaries, go beyond their limits and push themselves out of their comfort zone;
- "Dare to be you: defy self-doubt, fearlessly follow your own path and be confidently yourself!"
3. Artistic techniques & skills
- Experiment with different techniques and forms
- Discover trans-disciplinary and experimental working approaches, community art, social choreography.
impact
- Nb of participants in the "School of Desire": 270 / country, 1080 in total
- Nb of participants in the "Right for Fight" performance: 20 / country, 80 in total
- Nb of public for the 2 performances / country: 800 in total
Nb of directly reached people in total: 1960
rider & technical needs
Day 1-9, for the classes:
Day 10-14, for the rehearsal + performances:
- Indoor space: ideally a dance studio, a theater or an empty space. Big as much as possible, with a floor which is suitable for movement
- Speakers for playing music
- Ideally light design as well, to create colored ambiances
- A translator from English, if we can manage to address a wide, socio-economically and culturally mixed audience
Day 10-14, for the rehearsal + performances:
- Ideally a theater or indoor venue with lights + Light technician
- Speakers for playing music
- A venue big enough for receiving public (min 50 people)
